Andrew Party

It was Andrew's birthday yesterday. Jack had been looking forward to it for ages. Whenever we mentioned Uncle Andrew, Jack would say 'Andrew party! Andrew party!'. We browsed through the Women's Weekly birthday cake book and narrowed down the possibilities. Jack chose, through no prompting by myself, the jacuzzi cake complete with blue jelly water and 2 nude dolls. Very tempting. We ended up choosing a chocolate pinata cake but in the end left off the chocolate pinata dome when I ran out of time (and energy).We had a test run on Tuesday night and Jack and Andrew did well blowing out the candles.
Andrew and Noel turned up yesterday and Jack presented Andrew with his pressies. Earlier he had made the card and paper himself and kept asking when Andrew would be coming over. Andrew seemed thrilled with his pressies and then we had dinner (slow roasted lamb with char grilled pumpkin and zucchini and potatoes cooked in duck fat - call the artery police). Then it was time for the cake. As you can see Jack had already tested it to make sure it was okay. He's getting the hang of this candle blowing thing, but Andrew held his fringe out of the way just in case.

Parkapalooza

Over the holidays Jack and I frequented lots of parks (or more accurately several parks many times over). On the last day of the holidays we went to the family day care park in Wagga (after a quick tour of the zoo so we could give the donkeys some apples). The Professor and Jack played while I fulfilled my role as official photographer and caterer. This park is always quiet (so please don't tell anyone about it) it has a big fence around it and all the playground equipment is quite low to the ground so helicopter parents like myself can take a load off and relax. That's why it is my favourite park. Luckily Jack thinks it's okay too.
Our other favourite park is in Coolamon. Nothing special about it really, except that it is just around the corner from the library and Ajanta cafe which serves the most delicious cakes, hot chocolates and milkshakes. Some Saturdays we start at the library, follow it with cake then work it off at the park. Jack apparently had fond memories of the cafe because when we pulled up outside (and we hadn't been there for months) he yelled,
"CAKE! CHOCOLATE CAKE!"
The other day at the park my fear of being a helicopter parent was confirmed, as Jack scaled ladders and clambered over chains he said to himself, "Careful Jack." Then he turned to a kid on the slide and told them to be careful too. And here's our morning tea.

News...

You may have noticed that I have been a tad distracted lately and whilst some of that can be blamed on underwear parties, baby showers and book group and the generally exciting life that we lead, it has also been due to me writing another blog as a kind of audition for doing a blog reviewing kid's books for Webchild. Yes, I have been unfaithful to you my dear bleaders. The adress for my demo blog is http://storytimemama.blogspot.com/ but that will probably stop as all my reviews got to the webchild site.
And so my first review has appeared (huzzah!) and here is the address for anyone interested. Just a warning, it is terribly high brow....
http://www.webchild.com.au/index.php/Reviews/Books-for-Children/Things-that-make-you-go-hmmm.php.

pretty mummy

I really have to try and be more organised. Lately I grab everything and head towards the door running late for wherever we are going. I realised that this was the norm when as I threw things in a bag Jack said, " Quick, quick, time to go, back door now!" Hmm.
Usually I slap my lippy on in the car as we are about to drive off (don't tell makeover Martin). That's when Jack said, "pretty mummy," and I was pleased because as I said it's much better than grumpy mummy.
Then last week as I frantically go ready for the gym Jack put lip gloss on his lips (and did quite a good job). And he did this with an ink pad. I'm not entirely sure if he applied his lips to the ink pad or used his fingers but he looked like the joker. The pic is yet again blurry, but you get the idea.

Wabbits

Jack seems to go through phases with animals. I suppose all kids do. At the moment it's rabbits and crocodiles, or in Jackspeak wabbits and crocos. Hopefully not in the same cage. We have a rabbit that mum got Jack for Easter that he has taken a shine too and decided to feed. After we had so much success with persuading him to eat apples because that's what horses eat, I'm trying the same thing with carrots and rabbits. We'll see how that goes.

For the last day of term (because even if your kids aren't at school you still seem to get caught up in that system) our playgroup went to a cafe in Gumly called At the farm. It has a huge sandpit and lots of outdoor space for kids to run around. Let's not talk about the food and how long it took because 40 minutes wait for a warm (defrosted) lamingon and a smoothie that tasted like banana paddlepops is too depressing. And all Jack really wanted to do was look at the rabbits in a hutch and watch me feed them grass and check on their welfare every ten minutes or so. Probably for the best as the sandpit can best be described as a warzone.

Masterchef

I admit it. I was a devotee of Masterchef from the beginning. I became addicted to watching it, attached to the contestants (though not all) and understand the strange 'thing' that women viewers seem to have about the cravat wearing, guitarface pulling, witty, heart of marshmallow Matt 'Man Mountain' Preston.
Marieke Hardy was the first to proudly express her crush in print (but then she had that strange crush on Bob Ellis). Then Miranda Devine jumped on the bandwagon and now everywhere you look women are expressing their admiration for Matt or as the blogger Not Quite Nigella http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/07/04/waking-up-with-gordon-ramsay-the-masterchef-boys-the-good-food-wine-show/ calls him, Everyone's favourite Sexy Beast. Then I came across this cartoon on the crikey website. Here's a link if you can't read it. http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/15/first-dog-on-the-moon-357/


And of course well done Julie.

Happy (belated) Bastille!

Last year we just missed out on Bastille Day in France (we were in Dublin eating potatoes). This year we were even further away but we still had our own mini celebration (well, we ate french food). Ever since I saw the cover of July's french themed Gourmet Traveller I'd had a hankering to make some macaroons, those beautiful french ones not the lumpy coconut ones (though I like those too). And so I attempted them on Tuesday so they could be part of our french feast. Surprisingly I made chocolate ones, not the gorgeous raspberry ones on the cover and for the first attempt (and a messy attempt indeed) they turned out okay (better than Sam's on Masterchef anyway...)
I'll be attempting the Raspberry ones next, as soon as I get all the sticky egg whites off all my kitchen surfaces (and Jack and me). Sorry about the pic quality, my stylist and photographer were spending the day wit Donna H but look at all that chocolatey goodness.